10 November 2009

Weekend Off

This weekend I opted to not race and hit the trails on the Scott Genius 20 instead. The weather was outstanding for some low-key hours out at Landahl. Many others had the same idea as there was a ton of cars in the parking lot. Strangely, I didn't see too many people out on the trail. The trails were in great shape, but there was a healthy covering leaves. In a few places the leaves were pretty slick.

Saturday I ran into Chris Johnson and a friend of his, and we tooled around for a couple of hours.

On Sunday I did some adventuring. I looked for and found the "ISH" trail. There really isn't much trail at this point, but it looks like it could be cool when its finished. I'm probably not much of a freerider, but it would be still be fun to have another trail to hit. On a related note, apparently folks have approval to start building a freeride trail at SMP too.

I also found a good hill climb that could be added to a race course sometime. It is an old jeep trail that pretty much heads right up the northwest bluff from the Truman access road all the way up to Family Trail (just east of where the new connector trail joins the existing trail). While it might not be a favored trail for all-the-time-use (because of erosion issues), it would definitely be a good addition for race days.

I also eyeballed how The Boulevard could be brought back into play with a climb up to Family Trail. I didn't spend to much time looking at the details, but I think it could be done from the fence up to the top of the bluff with a few switchbacks. I guess it would probably connect up with the technical offshoot of Family Trail.

I'd also like to cut in a CX course up in the fields by the Argo trailhead. It would be nice to have a practice course that wouldn't require competing with other park users or getting flak for tearing up the grass. I don't see why we couldn't have a semi-permanent course setup for MTB short track racing and CX practice/racing.

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About

I am a full-time coach at Winkler Cycling in Boulder, Colorado. I work with athletes all over the country. I coach riders competing at all levels in the disciplines of MTB. Road and Cyclocross.

I started racing at 17 in 1986 as a junior and "retired" at 25. My first year riding I finished 9th in the U.S. National Championships Individual Time Trial and had other high placings in regional junior races. For the next several years I raced with the U.S. National Team and various trade teams in the U.S., Germany, and Spain.

During my career I was fortunate to be able race in Europe and to participate in a number of important races including the Tour of Baja, the Tour de l'Avenir, the Tour of Texas, the Tour de Trump, the Milk Race, the Ruta Mexico, the USPRO Road Race Championships and many others.

During those years, I learned how to race bikes by riding with and against a number of bike racers who were already great or would soon become so: Greg Lemond, Lance Armstrong, Steve Hegg, Harvey Nitz, Bobby Julich, George Hincapie, Sean Kelly, Laurent Fignon, Marc Madiot, Olaf Ludwig, Alex Zulle, Abraham Olano, Tyler Hamilton, and many others.